Tartarus Rotation
The Tartarus Rotation is the alignment of the Tartarus Sunspot on the Sun with the Earth. It is the First Trial set for humankind by the Super-Ancient Beings. History Early History At a currently unknown point in Earth's history, a race of Super-Ancient Beings noted the the Tartarus Sunspot aligned with the Earth roughly every 4,000 to 4,500 years, causing increases in global temperatures. The Super-Ancients constructed a Golden Capstone with a crystal peak which could absorb the heat, keeping global temperatures the same. They were somehow also able to make it that should a ritual of power be performed, then the nation who had the dirt of their homeland deposited beneath the Capstone during the Rotation event would receive 1,000 years of absolute power. The Super-Ancient Beings realised that even after they were gone from the Earth (by extinction, or otherwise departing the planet), there may yet be intelligent life, and so made the averting of the Tartarus Rotation the first of five trials which would allow them to determine if a new sentient species did arise and were worthy of existing. After the Super-Ancients were gone, the Tartarus Sunspot continued to afflict the Earth every few thousand years, with polar ice caps melting and causing sea levels to rise with each rotation. A few years prior to 2570 BC, the Old Kingdom of Egypt (which was under the control of the Four Legendary Kingdoms) were able to find and figure out how to use the Capstone to avert the Tartarus Rotation. They began constructing a pyramid and left the uppermost part unfinished so that the Golden Capstone could be set in place. A few years after the Great Pyramid was completed, the next Tartarus Rotation occurred, but thanks to the Capstone, the rise and temperatures and major flooding that had besieged Earth for several of the previous rotations were prevented. For reasons unknown, perhaps knowing that it was not the true time for the First Trial to be completed, the Egyptians then disassembled the Capstone into seven Pieces. Over the next few centuries, the Pieces were hidden in places related to the seven wonders of the ancient world. Before Seven Ancient Wonders Some time before the 1990's, Max Epper was distracted from his research in the ancient Machine linked to the Dark Star when he made the connection between the ancient floodings and the rotation of the sun's Tartarus sunspot. Having heard of the Capstone during his studies as an archaeologist, Epper was able to deduce that the Golden Capstone of the Great Pyramid had the peculiar ability to avert the dangers the sunspot posed to Earth. Knowing that it had long been lost to history, Epper began making preparations to help organise a joint multi-national mission to locate the ancient wonders of the world and the Capstone pieces they contained. By the early 1990's, both the Catholic Church (as agents of the Kingdom of Land) and the Commander-in-Chief's In Extremis Force (funded by the Caldwell Group which served the Kingdom of Sea) began making their own preparations to seize the power offered through the power of Tartarus by beggining their own research into the wonders. After locating the Callimachus text which revealed the resting places of the long-missing wonders, Epper and Jack West Jr sought an Oracle of Siwa to translate the Word of Thoth the text was written in. With the latest Oracle having recently died, they sought his pregnant wife to ask permission to use the child's ability when they grew up. However, Francisco del Piero and his faction kidnapped Malena and took her first-born son to translate their own copy of the Callimachus text, while Jack and Epper were fortunate enough to be able to retrieve a second child, a girl, from Malena's dead body. With a race to claim the Capstone pieces and choose the ritual which would suppress the Tartarus sunspot's heat on its next alignment, Epper called in the friends he had made in several small nations to inform them of his proposed mission, and during his presentation he shared his findings on the sunspot. Ultimately, Epper managed to convince the nations to unite in the mission, which for the next several years would require the guarding of Lily until she could translate the Callimachus text. Seven Ancient Wonders In the week leading up to the day of the Tartarus sunspot's next alignment with Earth on March 20th, the excess heat the sunspot gave off was at first barely noticeable with mild increases in temperature. However, as dawn began on the day of the Tartarus Rotation, it immediately became apparent that global temperatures were quickly rising. The sunspot was quickly identified as the source of the problem, and people began looking to the White House for solutions to the threat of flooding in coastal cities, but with the CIEF already in Egypt the President made no public statement. Once the CIEF claimed the last piece of the Capstone, Marshall Judah led them to the Great Pyramid to re-erect the Capstone and perform the ritual of power. Before the ritual began, the Coalition of Minnows team began fighting back, and during the conflict the Tartarus sunspot aligned perfectly with the Pyramid, causing a concentrated beam of the sunspot's energy to strike the Capstone. Judah's performance of the ritual of power was upset by Alexander escaping from the Capstone's recess before it was completed, but Mustapha Zaeed soon began performing the ritual with Lily as his sacrifice. As the ritual was completed, the Tartarus sunspot's energy was concentrated further through the Capstone's crystal array as it pierced Lily's heart, and thus Tartarus's excess heat was nullified and the ritual completed. With Jack having switched Zaeed's Saudi Arabian soil for Australian soil beforehand, the reward of 1,000 years of power for nullifying Tartarus was granted to Australia. After Seven Ancient Wonders Years later, Cardinal Ricardo Mendoza explained to Jack how the Tartarus rotation was the first of five tasks set by the super-ancient beings to test life on Earth. (The Four Legendary Kingdoms) Trivia . Category:Seven Ancient Wonders Category:Events Category:Ancient Trials